If there’s one new year’s prediction which will certainly come true in 2016, it’s that – with 5G looming – most vendors will be unveiling, or at least polishing up, a new network architecture. Virtualization, software-defined networking (SDN) and applications-driven platforms will be common factors, but as the buzzwords become familiar and operators start to make real world plans, there will need to be some firmer details of how the next generation mobile network is really going to look and behave. Of course, another factor in 2016 will be the emergence of combined roadmaps from Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent, once their merger is fully finalized. In the whole area of turning mobile carrier networks into software platforms, Nokia has, in our…